Daedalus Era Uniforms

[Tarek71]

Continuing from the Pre-Federation starfleet design, a little bridge-gapping. With very meagre graphic skills, here is the first attempt. The Command and Medical uniforms. Science and Engineering not finished yet. I havent added any insignia to the medical uniform yet. The free hand drawn breast patch looks wonky, but gives you an idea. May still have a shoulder patch at some point.

 

[The Axeman]

I've never been a fan of the whole 'completely different coloured uniform per dept' thinking. Pretty much every service has its specialists, but they tend to wear the same uniform as everyone else and are identified by a small patch or insignia. Wearing a completely different uniform doesn't really promote esprit de corp across your whole service either. Doctors might wear a lab coat, and on an aircraft carrier they wear coloured vests because they cant hear each other and need to see who does what many meters away instantly. They all wear the same uniform underneath though. Someone a few feet away in a starship corridor doesn't need a complete change of clothes to identify them to you as working for the science dept.

 

[Tarek71]

I've never been a fan of the whole 'completely different coloured uniform per dept' thinking. Pretty much every service has its specialists, but they tend to wear the same uniform as everyone else and are identified by a small patch or insignia. Wearing a completely different uniform doesn't really promote esprit de corp across your whole service either. Doctors might wear a lab coat, and on an aircraft carrier they wear coloured vests because they cant hear each other and need to see who does what many meters away instantly. They all wear the same uniform underneath though. Someone a few feet away in a starship corridor doesn't need a complete change of clothes to identify them to you as working for the science dept.

Well the goal here of course was to bridge the gap between the NASA-esque jumpsuits of the NX-01 era and the later uniforms which are department-color specific. Not to devise our own rebooted Trek designs.

On the other hand, I dont see any particular problem with it either. I dont think the espirit de corps is adversely affected. If you are the equivalent of a surface warfare officer and thus wearing your Command Gold all that seeing someone in Medical Green will do is remind you that you arent a doctor or nurse, not that you all arent in the same service together.

It seems as if the standardization of uniform is according to department and not wearing different colors based on which branch of the service you are in. Instead of Marine doctors wear green, Army doctors wear dark blue, Air Force doctors wear a lighter blue, etc. all medical personnel wear green.

I dont know, that doesnt seem like a problem. Of course it could be done differently, but thats always the case.

 

[TIN_MAN]

Looks cool. They seem a little "Kelvinesque", were you inspired partly by the new movie? I think these might make good uniforms for the "real" pre-tos Kelvin era?

 

[Tarek71]

Looks cool. They seem a little "Kelvinesque", were you inspired partly by the new movie? I think these might make good uniforms for the "real" pre-tos Kelvin era?

Thanks. And yes, I was. Looking at the Enterprise era (2150's) and the Kelvin crew (2230's) I thought about what would make sense in between these two. In fact before coloring the black shoulder borders, when the raised outlines of them were the same color as the tunic, they looked even more like the Kelvin era uniforms.

So I thought the intermediate was keeping the rank pips and shoulder borders the same and maybe the sleave/shoulder patch for the ship, but then adding the breast patch and making the tunics the departmental color and changing the borders and pants to black.

Although, yeah I think I would have preferred these for the pre-TOS over what was seen on the Kelvin.

 

[Tarek71]

Here are the Engineering and Science section uniforms. Changed the rank insignia slightly.

 

[Mage]

I like them!

And aren't different colors of uniforms or shirts used on US aircraft carriers to quicky spot what part of the flightdeck crew someone belongs too?
Personally, I think it makes sence to have different colors, although I prefer the way the FC-style uniforms do it a bit more subtle, with the color only noticable on the turtleneck.

 

[C.E. Evans]

Not bad at all, but then I kind of wished the ENT uniforms had been more colorful, so this definitely works for me as a post-ENT/pre-TOS design.

 

[Kaziarl]

I like them!

And aren't different colors of uniforms or shirts used on US aircraft carriers to quicky spot what part of the flightdeck crew someone belongs too?
Personally, I think it makes sence to have different colors, although I prefer the way the FC-style uniforms do it a bit more subtle, with the color only noticable on the turtleneck.

It really depends on the situation. As one example, the shiny metal insignia of a command officer in todays military is generally considered a bad idea to have on in the field because they screem "Sniper Target!". Instead they have colored but not shiny patches that you can see when you are face to face with the officer, but not at a long distance through a sniper scope. At least not as easily.

Have you're entire uniform be a different color depending on the department has the same problem, your command officers really stand out in the field.

Realistically, to me anyway, they could have one uniform for when they are on a ship and a different one when on a planet (in the field). In fact I believe the Navy, as an example, does just that.

Budget wise, that would have been expensive for the show, so I can understand why they never did that.

 

[Albertese]

Also when Star Trek first came out color television was all the rage so naturally NBC would want there to be lots of bright colors to help sell their all-color program line-up.

Always hate to step out-of-universe, but it helps for perspective occasionally.

--Alex

 

[Tarek71]

I like them!

And aren't different colors of uniforms or shirts used on US aircraft carriers to quicky spot what part of the flightdeck crew someone belongs too?
Personally, I think it makes sence to have different colors, although I prefer the way the FC-style uniforms do it a bit more subtle, with the color only noticable on the turtleneck.

It really depends on the situation. As one example, the shiny metal insignia of a command officer in todays military is generally considered a bad idea to have on in the field because they screem "Sniper Target!". Instead they have colored but not shiny patches that you can see when you are face to face with the officer, but not at a long distance through a sniper scope. At least not as easily.

Have you're entire uniform be a different color depending on the department has the same problem, your command officers really stand out in the field.

Realistically, to me anyway, they could have one uniform for when they are on a ship and a different one when on a planet (in the field). In fact I believe the Navy, as an example, does just that.

Budget wise, that would have been expensive for the show, so I can understand why they never did that.

Well in the field they will wear whatever the appropriate camo is. If you are working in an office on a home base somewhere, or in the Pentagon, you can wear your nice Army Blue uniform. It doesnt blend with much, but you arent trying to blend with the cubicles and laptops.

What tricorders would do to field dress and insignia is unknown. Presumably it can read the shape of the insignia at long range, so you can know who is who. So knowing that, maybe no insignia in the field, as it could be read by the enemy handheld sensor. That might life a bit difficult in a number of situations, but given that the enemy could just program a tricorder to prioritize targets by what shape their insignia is or how many pips it reads on their uniform, it might be necessary.

On a spaceship, I dont think it would matter. Enemy vessels will be gunning at critical sections of the ship, not critical people per se, and so I am not sure it would matter.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

aren't different colors of uniforms or shirts used on US aircraft carriers to quicky spot what part of the flightdeck crew someone belongs too?

AFAIK, they wear different colored *vests* over the same kind of jumpsuit/uniform.

 

[Kaziarl]

aren't different colors of uniforms or shirts used on US aircraft carriers to quicky spot what part of the flightdeck crew someone belongs too?

AFAIK, they wear different colored *vests* over the same kind of jumpsuit/uniform.

Upon looking it up just now, I guess they've changed it recently. I had thought they had those kind of tan-ish ones for officers, as well as various white, dark blue, and I thought I recalled seeing a picture of one that was black for enlisted. And this was even on navel vessels.

However, like I said, it seems that was either wrong, or they've changed it recently to everyone wearing roughly the same uniform. And of course, as Tarek said, in the field they use whatever cammo is appropriate for the situation.

Another thought for trek though, how many different kinds of cammo would they need? Or do they have special fabric that adapts to the setting? It would seem difficult to have so many different types of cammo on stock for any environment.

 

[Tarek71]

Another thought for trek though, how many different kinds of cammo would they need? Or do they have special fabric that adapts to the setting? It would seem difficult to have so many different types of cammo on stock for any environment.

These are the things we just dont know. What will ground warfare look like in 100, 150 or 200 years? Droid Armies? Iron Man looking battlesuits to augment performance and shift appearance to environment? Stealthy materials? Very hard to say. I dont think it will be people wearing regular ST:FC uniforms carrying phaser rifles, as in some DS9 Dominion War episodes. But what will be there instead is very difficult to project.

 

[Cicero]

Upon looking it up just now, I guess they've changed it recently. I had thought they had those kind of tan-ish ones for officers, as well as various white, dark blue, and I thought I recalled seeing a picture of one that was black for enlisted. And this was even on navel vessels.

However, like I said, it seems that was either wrong, or they've changed it recently to everyone wearing roughly the same uniform. And of course, as Tarek said, in the field they use whatever cammo is appropriate for the situation.

The navy's uniforms have very recently changed. Until the last year or so (perhaps two years), the navy had a large number of different uniforms, including four types of "working" uniforms and two sets of undress uniforms (the dress uniforms are still those worn during WWII). The uniforms you remember were among those. The undress (winter/summer) blues and whites have been exchanged for a khaki shirt and black slacks year round (for CPOs and officers, the slacks are also khaki). The blue (enlisted/PO) and khaki (Officer/CPO) "working" uniforms (along with the Navy's camouflage utilities and the very nice blue coveralls worn by all) have been replaced by the seeming camouflage uniform you saw, which is intended to hide grease and paint stains (unfortunately, it also happens to blend well with both the deck - when painted blue with white and black flecks, which is often - and the sea).

On carriers, the new uniforms are - like the old "working" utilities - often worn with color-coded turtlenecks instead of the usual tops (which are accentuated with vests and helmets when working on the flight deck). This image is essentially still accurate, save that the pants have changed from dark blue utility slacks (otherwise worn with a light blue shirt when that uniform was current; the officer or chief pictured would also no longer wear khaki slacks) to the new seeming camouflage trousers (called the Naval Working Uniform, or NWU), and the boots have changed.

Edit: Actually, I think at least some of the personnel in the picture are wearing their dress shoes with their flight deck/air wing gear and "working" (i.e. utility) uniforms. The basic principle remains the same, though - the trousers and shoes are all that have changed in that picture.

Regarding the Daedalus-era uniforms, have you considered trying them in more Kelvin-like colors, or hybrid colors of some sort?

 

[ProwlAlpha]

I always kind of wondered why there is name tag and department identifier on Star Trek. The three colors are too generalized. I used think that the comm badges would communicate that data when an unfamiliar officer or an enlisted person from an different department would interact. Now, I don't think so.

 

[Kaziarl]

I always kind of wondered why there is name tag and department identifier on Star Trek. The three colors are too generalized. I used think that the comm badges would communicate that data when an unfamiliar officer or an enlisted person from an different department would interact. Now, I don't think so.

They kind of did in the original series. Although it wasn't any more specific then the color of the uniforms themselves. The delta shape that we've come to know to represent Starfleet as an organization used to be specific to the Enterprise. Also, there was a symbol on each one that was supposed to designate department.

But again, it wasn't really any more specific then the uniform colors. Gold color/Star symbol for Command and Operations. Red/Spiral for Engineering and Security. and Blue/sphere (looks like it's supposed to be a sphere anyway.) for Science and Medical.

In contrast, the army has all sorts of different insignia depending on what job you have. The signal flags for communications as an example.

I think it would make sense to have these different roles cleared up, I mean you wouldn't want to accidentally drag an astrophysicist to a major surgery. Right? But again, if they thought of it the budget probably limited them. Not to mention being able to see that kind of detail. I didn't even know about the symbols until I got my hands on one of the TOS manuals that actually had the patterns to make your own uniform.

 

[C.E. Evans]

The often maligned TMP uniforms were extremely specialized, both by shipboard department and Starfleet division apparently...

 

[ProwlAlpha]

Which was why they have departmental pins and badges in today's military. I misspoke earlier, I actually meant I wonder why there isnt a name tag or a departmental pin. I get that about the Delta, but it is kind of disrespectful to address an unknown officer or crew member by just their rank. Besides, if you are coming into engineering and start addressing the first mustard-colored uniform, how do you know that this ensign is a member of a separate dept and don't even work in that area. A nice dept identified would be helpful and I assume only the main characters and recurring characters can do everything in engineering, science, command, or whatever. Not some transporter tech or a just low level computer officer know anything about warp integrity fields or a waste-disposal.

 

[Skywalker]

Continuing from the Pre-Federation starfleet design, a little bridge-gapping. With very meagre graphic skills, here is the first attempt. The Command and Medical uniforms. Science and Engineering not finished yet. I havent added any insignia to the medical uniform yet. The free hand drawn breast patch looks wonky, but gives you an idea. May still have a shoulder patch at some point.

These are pretty cool, but maybe a little too much too soon? I think a more gradual bridging would work better in this early stage of Starfleet's development. Maybe instead of making the whole top gold for command, red for engineering, etc., maybe they still wear a blue jacket (with black pants) with the colored shoulder piping, and then instead of the black undershirt they wore in ENT, maybe the undershirt is gold/red/blue/green based on their department?